Winter weather hampers resecue efforts as Turkey, Syria earthquake death toll passes 5,000

A frantic race was underway on Tuesday to find more survivors and help the injured as the death toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria the previous day reached 5,000. 

The toll is likely to climb as freezing weather and multiple aftershocks are hurting the rescue efforts -- despite international assistance.

Turkey has deployed more than 24,400 search and rescue personnel to the quake area, and that number is expected to rise with the arrival of additional personnel though the wintry conditions were hampering their deployment, according to Turkey's disaster management agency.

Temperatures overnight in the quake-hit city of Gaziantep sank to -5C.

Ships, helicopters and trucks have been deployed to help take the wounded to hospitals and bring in food supplies. 

Authorities in Turkey say they have received 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, with around half of those reports confirmed. 

Follow the latest developments in our live blog below:

Some 23 million people could be affected by the earthquakes that rocked Turkey and northern Syria, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

"Maps of the events show that 23 million people are potentially at risk, including around 5 million vulnerable people," said a WHO official, Adelheid Marschang, at a regular meeting of the organization's executive board.

"WHO is aware of Turkey's strong response capacity and considers that the main unmet needs could be in Syria in the immediate and medium term," she added.

"The delivery of aid across the border to northwest Syria is likely to be disrupted due to the damage caused by the earthquake. This in itself is already a huge crisis.” 

(AFP) 

Turkish government officials said around 13.5 million people were living in